Le Mariage

Average customer rating:

enjoyment of the book

A BIT MORE BELIEVABLE THAN LE DIVORCE

For Lovers of Henry James; "light reading"

Redeemed by adultery -- a morality play

Great Light Read

Le Mariage
Diane Johnson
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Le Divorce

L'Affaire

Into a Paris Quartier

Corinne, or Italy (Oxford World's Classics)

Girl in Landscape: A Novel

ASIN: 0099421852

Amazon.com

In the delicious Le Divorce, Diane Johnson's heroine dipped her American toe into the unfathomably deep waters of French culture. In Johnson's follow-up, Le Mariage, we plunge right in and swim among American expatriates and French high society types as they try to navigate relationships with one another. The novel makes references, both overt and oblique, to one of the great achievements of French culture, Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game, a film that steps lightly between farce and tragedy. Le Mariage does the same.

The story centers, like Anna Karenina, around two couples. Anne-Sophie, a bon chic, bon genre Parisienne who sells equestrian-themed antiques at the flea market, is engaged to Tim, an American journalist, "one of those large pink-cheeked rugby-player types." Clara, also an American, is a film actress married to her director, the brilliant Serge Cray. The two lead a reclusive life on the outskirts of Paris until their serenity is broken by a couple of events: following a well-publicized murder, a couple of American tourists drop in on the Crays and won't leave; and Clara is arrested for desecrating a national monument, when all she was trying to do was decorate her house.

These various settings--the flea market, the director's chateau, even the jail--allow Johnson ample room for the kind of Francophile fieldwork for which she is so justly famed. The engaged couple in particular provide lots of scope for details of Paris life: "One particular day, Tim suddenly knew he had found their apartment, on the Passage de la Visitation--the name itself so charming, the arrondissement so correct.... His heart lifted with the optimistic sense of the future that only real estate can bring." Minor characters abound, such as Anne-Sophie's mother, who writes the sort of hilariously intellectual dirty novels only the French can produce. Johnson delights in identifying such types, and sends them up with relish.

As in Le Divorce, Johnson delivers a trumped-up ending--this time at the Crays' chateau, where the rehearsal dinner for Anne-Sophie and Tim's wedding turns into a genteel French shootout--or, rather, standoff. The author has earned her finale this time, though. At the beginning, she asks the question that haunts all innocents-abroad novels: "Perhaps there are no natural contradictions between the French landscape and the Americans who inhabit it so diffidently, but it often seems that Americans would do well to stay out of what we do not understand. Or is it we who bring the harm?" This time, more explicitly than ever, Diane Johnson makes her answer an emphatic yes. And in doing so, she lays claim to the legacy of Henry James that has been linked with her name since Le Divorce. --Claire Dederer

Book Description

Anne-Sophie is a young Frenchwoman engaged to Tim Nolinger, an American journalist hot on the trail of a breaking story: The theft of a valuable illuminated manuscript from a private collection in New York, which may now be in the possession of a reclusive film director living on the outskirts of Paris. As Tim, Anne-Sophie, a pair of American antique dealers, and one amorous member of the local gentry converge on the director's chateau, the director's wife-a former actress-is accused of desecrating a national monument. Add to that a disappearing American; a hunting contretemps; a wrongful arrest; and murder, and you have this sexy, stylish, delight of a novel that celebrates the paradoxes of marriage and morality as they are perceived on both sides of the Atlantic. Filled with the author's pithy insights and hilarious asides, Le Mariage is Diane Johnson at her very best.

Customer Reviews:

enjoyment of the book .......2007-01-04

This is the first book I read of Diane Johnson. The story revolves around 7 or 8 characters. It also contains a lot of different components such as mystery, love, murder, romance, drama, etc.

I personally found that the way that Diane Johnson build up the story was excellent and it keeps you wanting to find out more and to know more, but about halfway or 2/3 way through the book she kind of drags the story and never really gives an ending to it, leaving you wanting more...in a bad way. I did not enjoy it because there were no conclusions and there was not answers to the questions.

It felt as if she had run out of time to write the book and had to quickly finish it off without completing the story that she had in mind.

A BIT MORE BELIEVABLE THAN LE DIVORCE.......2006-06-12

I just finished reading Le Marriage. Although I think Ms. Johnson has many flaws in her writing, I thought the development of some of her characters in this book was better. I really liked Clara and felt sorry for her when she went to jail because of some twisted thinking about hunting on her property. Her loveless marriage and her slow burn of desire for Antoine that culminates in days of passion was well done. Serge and she are so mismatched you wonder how they ever got together in the first place. And she was wimpy in not insisting upon seeing more of her son. How long were we with her and never read of her jumping across the channel for a quick visit to a handicapped boy.

Life in a chateau outside of Paris seemed boring. Didn't Clara have any girlfriends to invite over for gossip or cards or something? What a great place to entertain, but Clara just seemed to do nothing day after day -- except for visits into Paris.

Tim was poorly developed. Anne-Sophie is believable. Delia - oh, my, now that's a big question mark. And she should learn to always take a copy of her passport with her and keep it separate from the real one which should be kept - well, you know where.

Anyone who ever had a big wedding will understand Tim and Anne-Sophie's feelings about wanting to run. I really hoped one of them would have courage to do it, but there was a hint that it was just wedding jitters and things would work out at the end.

The murder and mystery are questionable. Are there really that many murders in Paris?

The dinner at the chateau with Serge's display of such bad manners was well written, but I would have preferred a big confrontation with Antoine full of great dialogue. That would have seemed more suited to the story - the husband finally fighting for his wife and the lover not caring about anything but Clara. Did anyone but me not realize for quite some time that this Antoine was the brother of the dead husband of Roxy in Le Divorce ? Guess I was skimmimg and not reading. Hmmmm. Wonder why?

I felt Diane "got it" about letting us use our imaginations to figure out how the passionate scenes were carried out. Great job there.

But,I won't read any more of Diane's books. They do not entertain. They drain you.

For Lovers of Henry James; "light reading".......2006-02-04

If you like reading the stories of Henry James and Borges and the novels of Jane Austen and Leo Tolstoy, arguing the different merits of Aristotle and Plato and the different brands of feminism, and you like watching "One Life to Live" and "Bridget Jones" (yet don't want your friends to know you watch TV), but you need to take a vacation from your heavy intellectual life, you will love this book! Although I label this book as light reading, you will be bored if you don't possess the intellectual background to fully enjoy it. The great dinner scene near the end is masterfully done and reminds me of the scene in "Madame Bovary" that Nabokov raved about in his "Lectures on Literature." That being said, this is still light reading in the sense that the characters resemble their soap opera counterparts on TV because Johnson avoids going into long details about the characters' pyschological states. The drama comes from stock situations that you would find in soap operas and hard-boiled detective novels. I should also mention that if you are interested in animal advocacy or animal philosophy, you will find this book very interesting.

Redeemed by adultery -- a morality play.......2005-01-02

While "Le Mariage" is no masterpiece, it is nonetheless an interesting novel, and not as bad a piece of work as some of these reviews would suggest.

Inevitably, it has to be compared with "Le Divorce", a more perfect achievement. In fact it is conceived, I believe, as a conterpoint or antithesis to that earlier work, and is intended to be read as such on some level.

In both novels we have various male members (ahem) of the de Persand family carrying on sexual relationships with American women. Central to "Le Divorce" is the outside affair that leads to the dissolution of the American heroine's marriage, and eventually to the murder of the "sinning" de Persand. BAD adultery... In "Le Mariage" another de Persand saves another American heroine from a loveless marriage with a cold, manipulative heel. GOOD adultery...

In fact, Ms. Johnson's thesis in "Le Mariage" is that true love, whether blessed by clergy or not, is more important and sacred than social convention -- not a new thought by any means, but intelligently and deftly worked out in this book. The allusions to the medieval literature of courtly love, which glorifies extramarital passion, are even made overt by the author in one of her chapters. Here, the heroine is a kind of saint on the altar of chevaleresque values (Clare Holly = Illuminated Holiness) and her transcendance and transfiguration take place in the bedroom with her lover. Their "aura" is stronger and truer than that of the other Franco-American couple who go through with the "legitimate", but nonetheless shaky and uncertain church marriage that is the book's erstwhile subject. Personally, I believe that the real "marriage" described in the title is the physical/spiritual union of Antoine and Clare, not the erstwhile main event. I wonder if the author would agree with me.

The book is overplotted, and darker in tone than "Le Divorce". There are fewer people to like than in the earlier book, and the author seems exasperated with the selfish and manipulative aspects of upperclass French society -- understandably enough, given the way things actually are in that corner of the world, but the characters and situations sometimes shade into caricature. Nonetheless "Le Mariage" is both a good read and an interesting contemporary parable/morality play.

Great Light Read.......2004-10-21

This book, from the author of Le Divorce, follows the same delightful blending of French and American culture. The story centers around the future marriage of Tim, an American journalist and Anne-Sophie, his sophisticated French fiancée. I especially enjoyed the character of Anne-Sophie's mother, Estelle, as she provided a comic look at life from a French novelist's perspective.

While this book won't disappoint you, I do feel Le Divorce is a much more clever, interesting read. On the surface the storylines in Le Mariage are very original and have much potential but are not given enough attention and somehow fall a bit flat. However, this is a great light read and you will enjoy this French/American genre that Johnson has helped create.

From the author of The Difference Now, A New Dish, and At the Coffee Shop.

Le Mariage de Figaro (Petits Classiques)

Average customer rating:

Le Mariage de Figaro (Petits Classiques)

Manufacturer: Larousse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Comedy | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 2038716110

Book Description

Beaumarchais's comedic sequel to The Barber of Seville, chronicling the misadventures of the title character

Classiques Bordas : Le Mariage de Figaro

Average customer rating:

Classiques Bordas : Le Mariage de Figaro
Beaumarchais
Manufacturer: Bordas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 2047303567
Release Date: 2003-08-21

$Le jeu de l\'amour et du hasard$
Average customer rating:

Le jeu de l\'amour et du hasard
Pierre Carlet de Chamblain Marivaux
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Arts & Photography | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Entertainment | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0543885720
Release Date: 2001-02-16

Beaumarchais: Le Mariage de Figaro (French Texts)

Average customer rating:

Beaumarchais: Le Mariage de Figaro (French Texts)
Pierre Augustin Caron De Beaumarchais
Manufacturer: Duckworth Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Continental European | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 1853993174

Au ceur de l'amour: Entretien sur l'amour, le mariage et la famille

Average customer rating:

Au ceur de l'amour: Entretien sur l'amour, le mariage et la famille
M.-D Philippe
Manufacturer: Fayard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Religion & Spirituality | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 2213020094

Beaumarchais, Le mariage de Figaro (Critical guides to French texts)

Average customer rating:

Beaumarchais, Le mariage de Figaro (Critical guides to French texts)
Robert Niklaus
Manufacturer: Grant & Cutler
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 844996346X

Average customer rating:

Beaumarchais, Le Mariage De Figaro (ST)
J.B. Ratermanis
Manufacturer: Voltaire Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Brigitte et le mariage de Veronique (Collection Berthe Bernage)

Average customer rating:

Brigitte et le mariage de Veronique (Collection Berthe Bernage)
Berthe Bernage
Manufacturer: Gautier-Languereau
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 2217030337

Ce que Dieu a uni: Le mariage chretien hier et aujourd'hui (Foi chretienne)

Average customer rating:

Ce que Dieu a uni: Le mariage chretien hier et aujourd'hui (Foi chretienne)
Theodule Rey-Mermet
Manufacturer: le Centurion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

French | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Nonfiction | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

Religion & Spirituality | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 2227300124

Book Description

This is an 'all-killer, no filler' compilation of the best of the Wicked Words series. From over 150 stories, the editor has compiled her choice of the hottest, freshest and most imaginative writing of the series. The diversity of themes and styles is a kaleidoscope of cutting-edge fiction from the UK and USA. The book combines humour, warmth and attitude with sizzlingly sexy action, making this wickedest Wicked Words volume ever.

Customer Reviews:

Another great book in the Wicked Word Series!.......2005-03-25

Authors have done it again. This book was just as it should be--WICKED!

Wicked Words 10: The Best of Wicked Words (Black Lace)

Average customer rating:

Wicked Words 10: The Best of Wicked Words (Black Lace)
Kerri Sharp
Manufacturer: Virgin Black Lace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVEOY8

Average customer rating:

Not a bad foray

Interesting situation

A real page-turner!

A decent Star Trek Voyager book!

Im sorry, Eric, but you have not written a good book at all.

Death of a Neutron Star (Star Trek Voyager, No 17)
Eric Kotani
Manufacturer: Star Trek
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic | Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Star Trek | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Voyager | Star Trek | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Chrysalis (Star Trek Voyager, No 12)

Battle Lines (Star Trek: Voyager)

Marooned (Star Trek Voyager, No 14)

The Black Shore (Star Trek Voyager, No 13)

Echoes (Star Trek Voyager, No 15)

ASIN: 0671004255

Book Description

An alien scientist asks to join Captain Kathryn Janeway and her crew in the investigation of an unprecedented scientific find. Soon U.S.S. Voyager® is embroiled in a battle of wills among several alien races -- each intent on manipulating the discovery toward its own end and decimating whole worlds in the process.

Janeway must stop a quest for knowledge from turning into a plot for destruction!

Customer Reviews:

Not a bad foray.......2005-07-11

Death of a Neutron Star isn't a terrible foray into the realm of Voyager. Unfortunately the mostly interesting plot is drowned out in the beginning with some healthy treknobabble and Janeway's strange obsession over some coffee beans they picked up on a planet they stopped at before the book starts.

Now coming off the amazing Seven of Nine (ST:VOY Book#16) Death has a pretty big burdon. Still it is a decent Trek novel and if you get into it develops quite nicely. The author's unique characters were some of the more pleasant, though not necessarily best written, in the Voyager novels.

Interesting situation.......2003-02-23

Although not the best ST:VOY book I've read (check out "The Nanotech War" for a great read), the plotline was interesting and suspenseful.

The entire book leads up to a final encounter, where Janeway and her team uses innovative and surprising methods to save their ship, their new allies, and perhaps the rest of the galaxy.

These types of situations aren't new to any Federation Crew, but Kotani and Smith provide a unique and great conclusion.

A real page-turner!.......2002-12-30

I couldn't put this book down -- lots of suspense, possible doom if Voyager couldn't use science to solve the problem of a warlike race using the explosion of a neutron star to destroy its enemies. This book was fun from a scientific standpoint, but also, all the familiar folks were there, and their relationships rang true for me (i.e. Janeway and Seven, Janeway and Torres, Janeway and Paris, etc.) I have read several Star Trek books, and this was one of my favorites!

A decent Star Trek Voyager book!.......2002-07-19

While not being one of the best "Voyager" books, this is defintely not among the worst of them. In fact, it was pretty refreshing in that it wasn't the normal "Voyager" book which is typically based on the old "We need food from this planet and the bad guy's won't let us get to it." That said, I rather enjoyed the book, despite what some of the other reviewer's stated about the author focusing too much on Janeway's enjoyment of coffee and the ever present technobabble. Star Trek in and of itself is based a lot in technobabble, no big deal.
In my opinion, this was an extremely well done first foray into the Trek world by Eric Kotani. Hopefully we'll see some more trek stories from him in the future. Overall a well done book and I would recommend it to anybody who reads trek. Thank you to author for a good read.

Im sorry, Eric, but you have not written a good book at all........2001-03-24

Most of the Voyager books that I've read have been quite good--especially the ones by Christie Golden. She can really write. However, Death of a Neutron Star was anything but exciting. Eric Kotani's writing style was adolescent. Despite what others may say, I felt like I was reading a story that I might have written in sixth grade! The characters were not developed, though they blandly followed their early series-established outlines. The plot was dull, and every single event could be easily predicted. If you want to read a good STV book, read one by Ms. Golden, but for god's sake, don't spend a penny on this peice of junk!

Star Trek Voyager 17 Death of a Neutron Star

Average customer rating:

Star Trek Voyager 17 Death of a Neutron Star
Eric with Smith, Dean Wesley Kotani
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Book Description

Examines how each of the major religions looks at death by including stories, teachings and rituals that present a comparative religious meaning of death and afterlife. Written in textbook style with journal exercises at the end of each chapter.

Customer Reviews:

Kramer's course.......2005-12-22

I had the luxery of not only reading Kramer's book, but also took a course along with it. Kramer taught for a short time at San Jose State University, Death Dying & Religion. Of course, being the source of a book, it was intreguing to hear his arguments and views about each religion. Kramer describes in detail the geographical location of each religion and how similar each religion is, and how it ties in the same very locations that each religion has, with their own interpretations. I decided to look up his book, simply because I saw a Barbara Walters special on Heaven, which reminded me of Kramer's course. This book is definitely a text book, but if you have any questions on why so many countries hate America based on their religions, perhaps we can better understand them but comparing them to your own views on religion. Even within the Christian religion, the differences are there. History runs high even amongsts Buddhists and it's sister religions. I do recommend this as a book to read.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books